


Your Hands Protect the Flames

by fatedfeathers



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Gen, I had to write something for the Caleb backstory drop, No Dialogue, Second Person, Vaguely described non-graphic violence, episode 18 spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-05-06 01:00:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14630730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fatedfeathers/pseuds/fatedfeathers
Summary: You were so sure of yourself, of your devotion. You had something to push yourself for again. You could make this right. You just had to get strong enough for it. But you could do it, you knew you could. You were so sure of yourself.





	Your Hands Protect the Flames

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn’t sure how to tag without spoilers, but. All the warnings wrt Caleb’s backstory apply to this fic; it deals mostly with the abstract, and is very vague, but it does touch on the fact that he literally burned his parents alive.

You were so sure of yourself, of your devotion, the entire time. You never wavered, through all the years of schooling, of training; through your two classmates’ families, you were certain.

You didn’t hesitate when you got to your hometown; didn’t think twice when you got to your house in the middle of the night, when you barricaded the door. You were confident in your devotion to the Empire, you were devastated by the discovery of your parents betrayal. You couldn’t bear to pause before lighting the house up, watching it catch, hearing them scream.

You were so, so sure of yourself…

Until you weren’t.

Your memory was perfect, but it was hard to remember if when you snapped was when the smell _started_ or the screaming _stopped._

After the asylum, after the healer, after learning what Trent had done, you knew what you had to do.

You were so sure of yourself, of your devotion. You had something to push yourself for again. You could _make this right._ You just had to get strong enough for it. But you could do it, you knew you could. You were so sure of yourself.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Critical Role fic. I wasn’t planning on writing anything for this because usually it takes me longer to get a handle on the characters in whatever I listen to/watch, but like. Holy heck? That backstory? I knew I had to do something, and this was percolating all day at work. I know it’s short, but... It’s something.


End file.
